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A non-profit publication of the Office of the University Relations of Virginia Tech,
including The Conductor, a special section of the Spectrum printed 4 times a year

Achievers

Spectrum Volume 17 Issue 28 - April 13, 1995

The second collection of short stories by Edward
Falco, associate professor of English, has won the Richard Sullivan Prize
from the University of Notre Dame and will be published later in the year by
that university's press.

The Sullivan Prize volume is selected from an open competition among writers
who have published at least one earlier collection of stories. The judges for
1995 were Valerie Sayers and William O'Rourke. "The Artist," one of the stories
included in Acid, was originally published last October in The
Atlantic Monthly and has been selected by Jane Smiley for inclusion in
The Best American Short Stories 1995.

Falco is also the author of a novel, Winter in Florida, which examined
the issue of violence in our society, and of a chapbook of prose poems,
Concert in the Park of Culture. This spring, Eastgate Systems will bring
out Sea Island, Falco's collection of hypertext poems.

Linda G. Leffel, professor and director of program development in
University Outreach and International Programs' Division of Continuing
Education, gave an invited presentation on "The Power of Strategic Business
Planning" at the national conference "The Art and Science of Conferencing in an
Academic Environment: Power and the Role of the Conference Professional. The
conference was held in Chicago."

Leffel has been appointed by the president of the National University
Continuing Education Association to serve on the National Program Planning
Committee for NUCEA's 1996 annual conference in Boston. She was also elected to
the Executive Board of NUCEA's Division of Conference and Institutes.

Ned Lester, director of business and community relations for Virginia
Tech's outreach and international programs, headed the management team for a
recent U.S.-China trade mission. The trade mission, which consisted of 22
business and education leaders, evolved from the joint sponsorship in 1992
by Virginia Tech, Marshall University, and Wright State University of a
series of conferences on technology transfer, business-education
partnerships, and global marketing.

Blacksburg artist Preston Frazer was honored March 21 by Virginia
Tech's Friends of the University Libraries with a reception that featured an
exhibition of his work. The event was held in the Special Collections
department of Newman Library.

Frazer, who served as professor of life drawing at Virginia Tech for 35 years,
was praised by Lon Savage, the master of ceremonies and co-chair
of the Friends, for "his years of devoted and invaluable distinguished service
on the faculty, as an invaluable contributor to our community, as a patron and
benefactor."

Savage thanked Frazer for contributing his own art and the art of others to
the university, including a painting of Einstein that hangs in the library.
That painting, Savage said, is "one of the few done from life--this one by
the noted German artist Max Westfield."

Savage called Frazer "the most original human being created" and said the
Blacksburg artist's line drawings "are really masterpieces."

Frazer's artistic works have been published in several books and exhibited at
the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts,
Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Harvard, and University of Tennessee
at Nashville.

Donna Dunay and Robert Dunay, professors in the College of
Architecture and Urban Studies, were recently recognized for a winning design
entry in the 1994 Excellence in Masonry Design Awards. Their design of Pear
Hall, a children's addition consisting of a playroom and a pair of bedrooms,
was cited for its innovative use of materials. This state-wide award is the
result of an annual competition held by the Virginia Masonry Council to
acknowledge the best projects utilizing masonry as a primary building material.